PHANTASIA AND THE SHAPING OF THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION: BETWEEN POLITICAL THOUGHT AND JOURNALISTIC REPRESENTATION
PHANTASIA AND THE SHAPING OF THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION: BETWEEN POLITICAL THOUGHT AND JOURNALISTIC REPRESENTATION

Summary/Abstract: This paper explores the intersection between political phantasia and media phantasia, understood as complementary forms of the contemporary social imagination. Building on Aristotle’s conception of phantasia as an intermediary faculty between perception and thought, the study examines how, in modern societies, imagination operates as a collective mechanism of meaning-making and world-construction. In the political sphere, phantasia generates utopian and ideological projections—possible worlds imagined as necessary. In the journalistic sphere, it translates these projections into perceptible narratives, transforming abstract ideas into shared representations of reality. Through narrative strategies, framing, and visual discourse, journalism materializes political imagination, turning visions of power into credible social images. By analyzing examples of political discourse and media storytelling, the paper argues that phantasia functions both as a tool of critical understanding and as a potential vehicle of manipulation. Ultimately, it introduces the concept of social phantasia—a space where political thought and media representation converge, shaping the way the world “appears to us.”

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